Question Four Who would be the audience for your media product? By Phoebe farrington

The Core and Broader Audience…. The core audience for our film would be people of the age of 18-35. The core audience would most probably be interested in films and TV series that follow the ‘big brother’ surveillance theme, like adaptations to ‘The Truman Show’ and ‘Dead Set’. However, our broader audience would most likely be between the ages of 16-60, as our film is quite non-specific, due to its lack of violence and gory scenes. Our film idea would most likely appeal to people who like thriller films in general and have an interest in that genre, because it is a psychological thriller and therefore is quite an unusual sub-genre to an audience. Our narrative of our film isn’t too hard to follow. Obviously there are twists and turns in the narrative but this doesn’t limit the audience too much, as it is clear enough for people to understand and follow even at a younger age (16).

The audience we want to attract…. I think our thriller would appeal to both male and female. It isn’t particularly aimed at a majority audience however, it may appeal more to men because of the governmental theme and the survival theme, but could also appeal to women more because of the male protagonist. Again, we didn’t want to aim it an just male or just female so tried to make the gender of the audience very non-specific. I think our film is less likely to attract older viewers, because they are less likely to go to the cinema to watch it, however younger people are more likely to go and watch it at a cinema. However, people who do decide to go and watch it at the cinema may chose to go and see the film twice, increasing box office takings.

Similar Films….. Similar films to our film, that we have adapted are those such as ‘The Truman Show’, ‘The Book of Eli’ and ‘I am Legend’. All of these films have a surveillance, last person standing theme, however some are more gory and horror as opposed to our genre and sub-genre which is psychological thriller. Films like this attracted their audience by aiming them at an older audience but also aiming it at a younger audience as they aren’t too scary for younger viewers. Therefore they have been able to broaden their audience. Also, they have branded it at a male and female audience by using famous actors that will appeal to both male and female. For example; Will Smith in ‘I am Legend’ and Mila Kunis in ‘The Book of Eli’.

Rating/Certificate….. I gave our film a 15 certificate because a younger audience would be able to follow the storyline and the narrative, however I feel that the narrative would be slightly to complex for anyone under the age of 15. In our film there are some social problems due to the government which I think is not too complicated for someone younger to follow. Even thought the narrative has complicated twists and turns the end becomes quite clear. Therefore a certificate of 15 would probably be most appropriate. Someone under the age of 15 may not understand what a corrupt government is and therefore the film would not make sense. Comparing the age description certification from BBFC, we were able to decide on the most appropriate rating for our film. A rated 15 film is allowed to show strong violence, discriminatory language or behaviour and frequent strong language, all of which our film would possibly contain. Therefore we were able to make an informed decision of what our film would contain, and so what rating it needed to be, which would be a 15.

Target Audience Member….. This is Jamie Edwards. He is 22 years old and lives in Birmingham. He goes to university in Birmingham and dresses very casually. He enjoys going to the cinema with friends to watch new films, therefore he doesn’t really have a favourite genre of film and enjoys to watch new and different films. He then reviews them and writes blog posts about the new film he has watched. Jamie likes films like Seven, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Star Trek and the Inbetweeners. He loves going to the cinema and goes often (once or twice a week), so only buys DVDs when he really likes a film. Jamie likes to watch TV shows like The Big Bang Theory, Geordie Shore, Friends and Scrubs. Which are mostly on E4 and Comedy Central. Jamie doesn’t really listen to music and doesn’t often listen to radio I think our film would appeal to Jamie because he likes to watch varied genres of films and likes to watch something new and different. Also, Seven is also a thriller like ours, so he would like to compare the two different sub-genres.

STUDENTS TV PROGRAMMES FILMS